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Naba Barsho!

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear whose names were pulled out of the hat for the question about the women you most admire. You’ll hear about Bengali New Year, there’s some great music, and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the arrow in the photo and enjoy!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to The Sound Kitchen. You can catch the programme on-the-air every Saturday at 6:15, 7:15, 14:45 and 16:45 universal time. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you have grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews and great music, so be sure and tune in every Saturday.

For our DX enthusiast friends: Our shortwave frequency is 11830 kHz on the 25m band, from 06.00 to 07.00 UT every day. We’ve had reception reports from Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, the UK and the US, and although the frequency is “aimed” (or however that works) towards the African continent, give it a try. You never know … and be sure and send us your reception reports. Maybe we can get more time, which would be wonderful.

You can also hear our programs on WRMI (http://www.wrmi.net/) and WRN (http://www.wrn.org/listeners/). These broadcasters diffuse our programs out of the goodness of their hearts but unless you tell us how you heard us we have no way of knowing … so do write and tell us how you listen to us.

If you have an internet radio and would like to add RFI English to your pre-set buttons, send an e-mail to english.service@rfi.fr and we'll get the link to you.

We want you to call us! We have a phone number you can call to leave us a message so we can hear your voice! Just call, give your name, your country, and a short message - something like “I love RFI”, because of course you do – and we can put you on-the-air! The number to call is: + 33 1 84 22 95 82.

Welcome to our new RFI Listeners Club members: S K Afzal Husain from Odisha, India and Samsideen Jeng from Sifoe village in the Kombo South District of The Gambia. So glad you have joined us!

You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write me at english.service@rfi.fr and tell me you want to join and I’ll send you a membership number. It’s that easy.

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write her so that I stay in the loop too.

We’ve made a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/583819955292977/ and fill out the questionnaire !!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

This week’s quiz: On 10 March, for International Women’s Day, I asked you to send in the name of the woman you most admire and why. As there is no right or wrong answer I put all your entries into a box and drew out five.

The winners are: Shahanaj Parvin Sathi, the president of the Nilshagor RFI Fan Club in Nilphamari, Bangladesh; Muhammad Shamim, the president of the RFI Golden Eagles Club in Keralam State, India and RFI Club members Bernard Egbe from Abuja, Nigeria; Riaz Hussain from District Chiniot in Pakistan and Ralf Urbanczyk from Eisleben, Germany.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: Medley of traditional Bengali instruments by Piaru Khan; Rimsky-Korsakov: “The Flight of the Bumblebee”; “April in Paris” by Vernon Duke and E. Y. Harburg, sung by Billie Holiday.

This week’s question: You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 2 May to enter this week's quiz. The winners will be announced on the 2 June program. Be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.